The Gold Record – how to lose it and how to get it back

They are status symbols for every musician, producer, singer, arranger, songwriter or radio station. They are framed copies of popular albums and singles – but instead of a store-bought record in the frame, the record itself is made of gold. And underneath the record is a special plaque, honoring that person as being part of that record selling a million copies or two million copies or a zillion million copies.

They are treasures that are tangible proof – at least in the eyes of the music industry – that you were a part of that record’s ultimate success.

Actually, they’re really leftover gold stampers – the plates used to make records – rather than gold-plated copies of the vinyl itself. But I didn’t care. I wanted one.

Even as far back as 1983, when I was the music director at WHCL at Hamilton College, I would read Billboard magazine cover to cover and see pictures of artists receiving gold records from their record companies.

Then I saw something even cooler.

There was a picture of a program director of a Texas radio station – and he was holding up a gold record. The photo – which also featured MTV video jock Martha Quinn handing him the record – was to commemorate his radio station being the first rock station to play Michael Jackson’s song “Beat It.” This was a major accomplishment, as rock stations weren’t going to touch that record – even with Eddie Van Halen on lead guitar.

Wow. And of course, that gets to me. Be the first to break a new record. Be the first to catch the wave. And then, if all goes well, a golden record commemorating your success will hang for eternity on the radio station wall.

And dang it, I wanted one. I wanted proof that college radio could be a successful promotional tool, and not just a free advertising conduit for alternative acts.

But unfortunately, WHCL was not a 50,000 watt signal-bombing radio station. It barely had over 200 watts of power, and the station was situated in a market where the top two album-oriented rock radio stations in the area, WOUR and WRCK, had the lion’s share of listeners.

But I pressed on. And at one point, one of the records we played the bejeebers out of, the debut album by the group General Public, started racing up the charts. You remember General Public, don’t you? “Tenderness?” “Never You Done That?” Their self-titled song “General Public”? The former members of the English Beat, Ranking Roger and Dave Wakeling?

Well, at the time the college promotions rep for their record company, IRS Records, told us that once that album sold over 500,000 copies – enough to receive “Gold” certification from the Recording Industry Association of America – our station, WHCL, would receive a gold record.

Apparently the album must have stalled after the 499,999th copy sold, because we never got the gold record.

There was a running joke through the college radio station crew – that I would have done anything to get a gold record, I would have promoted anything to get a gold record for the station. What they didn’t realize was that I needed some sort of personal validation – that college radio wasn’t just a cheap promotional gimmick where little stations like ours were promised the world and only given a globe.

By the time I was a graduating senior, our station was playing the new Tears for Fears album, “Songs from the Big Chair,” and it became the duo’s biggest American release. You know… “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” “Shout,” “Head Over Heels,” all that.

Again, I tried to petition the college rep for Tears for Fears’ label, Mercury/Polygram, to consider WHCL for a gold record.

The rep said he would consider it.

A few days later, I got a call back. It was the rep; he said the record company would give WHCL a gold record – as long as the record company received $199 for manufacturing costs.

Well, I guess we didn’t “earn” the gold record, but at least we could purchase one. I had some money saved up after graduation, so I had a money order made out for $199 and sent it to Mercury/Polygram.

Two weeks later, I hadn’t heard back. So I called the record company and asked to speak to the college radio representative.

He was not available. The person on the other end asked if a message could be taken.

I told him who I was, what station I was with, and asked if there was any news regarding the gold record for our station, since we had already paid for it to be made.

Two hours later, I got a call back – from a very angry record company college radio representative. Apparently I had actually spoken to the rep’s BOSS, who was not happy that the rep had asked for money for the gold record. And apparently he got ripped – so I was going to get ripped twice as hard.

A couple of days later, my uncashed money order was returned to me.

Essentially my quest for a gold record ended right then and there.

It didn’t help my confidence in that when I worked at radio station 3WD in the late 1980’s, there were several gold records hanging on the station wall; awards earned back when 3WD was a viable listening alternative in the Capital District’s Top 40 market.

We now spin forward to the spring of 2000.

After a few years working with Goldmine magazine, the music collector’s biweekly, I was asked by Goldmine’s publishing company to write a book for beginning record collectors. The book would be called Warman’s American Records 1950-2000 – the “Warman” in the title was Edwin Warman, who wrote an antique collector’s guide in the 1960’s, and the publishing company that owned Goldmine bought the book rights to his antiques books – and decided to add “Warman’s” to their line of beginning antique and collectibles books. That’s why there’s “Warman’s Glass” and “Warman’s Civil War Collectibles” and all the others. It’s similar to why there’s all these card playing books attributed to Hoyle, even though Hoyle only wrote a book on how to play whist. Anyways, my first published book would be the first edition in the “Warman’s American Records” series.

Among the chapters I wanted to include was a chapter on colored vinyl records and shaped discs – the grooves would remain round, but the perimeter of the record could be square or heart-shaped or shaped in any way imaginable.

In researching the chapter, I came across a California-based company called Erika Records. Erika Records is one of the largest private “boutique” vinyl record companies, for years they did the short-printed “Sub Pop Singles Club” collection of colored vinyl 45’s. I asked if they would send me some samples of their work; one of the records they sent was a very collectible Jimi Hendrix promotional record.

The Hendrix record was his performance of “The Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock; the record itself was a translucent blue hue, with die-cut stars around the exterior perimeter – the grooves were in the interior of the record. Only a few hundred were ever pressed.

I liked the imagery of the record; and I campaigned for it to appear on the front cover of the book.

Once Warman’s American Records came out, I got a glimpse of the cover. Yes, the Jimi Hendrix “Star Spangled Banner” record was on the front cover. You can see it; it’s on the bottom row of the book cover, second image from the right. Success.

In case you’re wondering, the other images on the book cover are a Jan & Dean picture sleeve, a Bob Marley 45, the Beatles’ first American LP, R.E.M.’s first 45 (the purple copy of “Radio Free Europe” at upper right), a “Weird Al” Yankovic four-song extended-play record; Jim Reeves’ first country LP; an Elvis Presley custom picture sleeve; the Jimi Hendrix “Star Spangled Banner” promotional record, and a Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five LP (at lower right).

A couple of months later, a package arrived at my door. I brought it in, thinking it was something I bought on eBay and completely forgot that I bought it. This does happen.

Then I opened the package.

Oh lord.

Erika Records, the custom-vinyl company that produced the limited edition Jimi Hendrix “Star Spangled Banner” record, was so thrilled with their appearance on the cover of my book, they sent me my very own personal Gold Record Award to commemorate the release of my first published book.

I don’t even care that it’s not an RIAA-certified gold record. I don’t care at all. All I care about is that someone gave a hang about what I was doing – and decided to do something unexpected and nice. You can’t ask for more than that in this world.

The gold record is still framed and it still hangs on a wall in my living room. If I did nothing else for Goldmine magazine, or in the music industry as a whole, this award itself was worth all the hard work.